Google's Trekker brings Street View to hiking trails

Over the last few years, Google's specially-designed cars, trikes, trolleys and snowmobiles have brought interactive Street View technology to the cities and jungles of the world – but why stop there? The search giant recently unveiled the Street View Trekker, a hi-tech backpack-contained system that will bring Street View to those places that can only be reached on foot.

The Android-powered setup weighs in at 40 pounds (18 kg) and includes 15 five-megapixel cameras, a hard drive for local storage, and two batteries that provide enough power for a full day's walk.

The captured images are stored in the hard drive, processed by Google, and finally uploaded to the Web. Google plans to take the backpack to canyons, national parks, castles and ruins.

Nature Valley has already done something similar, using a backpack-mounted multi-lens camera to capture 360-degree imagery of trails in some of America's national parks.